Chapter 18 - What Sebastian ChoseSebastian’s first instinct was violence.
His second was control.
His third was Claudia’s voice.
You are not the only person capable of solving problems.
He called federal investigators.
State police.
His security team.
He did not disappear into the night alone.
That choice saved Lily.
Traffic cameras captured a van leaving the Mercer neighborhood.
The license plate led nowhere.
But Sophie noticed something in the security footage.
“The back light is broken.”
Sebastian looked.
Right taillight.
Cracked.
A second camera found the same vehicle at a gas station.
Then another.
Within forty minutes, police tracked it to an abandoned marina.
Sebastian was told to remain behind the perimeter.
He did.
Barely.
Agents entered.
Three minutes.
Five.
Seven.
Then a radio crackled.
“Child located.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
Alive.
Uninjured.
Terrified.
The kidnappers had intended to exchange Lily for Greer.
They believed Greer possessed account codes worth hundreds of millions.
The network was collapsing.
Everyone wanted an exit.
Lily ran into David’s arms.
Sebastian stayed several feet away.
Then Lily looked at him.
“Sebastian?”
It was the first time she had called him anything.
He approached.
She hugged him.
Sebastian froze.
Then carefully wrapped his arms around her.
“You came.”
“Yes.”
“Dad said you’d come.”
Sebastian looked at David.
David nodded.
Something settled between the two men.
Not competition.
Shared responsibility.
Later, Claudia found Sebastian sitting alone outside the hospital.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She sat beside him.
“I wanted to kill them.”
“I know.”
“I wanted to go into that building myself.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“That feels like a very low standard for personal growth.”
Claudia laughed.
“Your standards were historically underground.”
He smiled.
Then became serious.
“I almost lost twelve years with her.”
“You did lose them.”
Sebastian flinched.
Claudia continued gently.
“You can’t get those years back.”
“I know.”
“But you might get the next twelve.”
He looked through the glass where Lily sat between Rebecca and Rachel while Ethan, wearing a mask, teased her from his bed.
Family had become complicated.
But perhaps complicated was not the opposite of beautiful.
Ethan’s transplant began working.
His blood counts improved.
Doctors became cautiously optimistic.
Weeks later, he walked outside for the first time.
Lily waited with a sign.
STILL SHORTER THAN ME.
Ethan looked offended.
“We are literally the same height.”
“Emotionally, you’re shorter.”
Sophie immediately loved Lily.
Sebastian discovered this was dangerous.
Three girls capable of coordinating against him would eventually exist under one roof.
Claudia considered that justice.
Then Greer finally talked.
The network had one remaining leader.
Not Isabella.
Not Marcus.
A man Sebastian knew.
A man who had quietly served as Navarro Maritime’s outside counsel for twenty years.
Charles Whitmore.
Sebastian remembered him at his father’s funeral.
At his wedding.
At Sophie’s school fundraiser.
At Noah’s christening.
Always smiling.
Always invisible.
Federal agents prepared arrests.
But Whitmore disappeared.
His office was empty.
His home abandoned.
And on his desk sat one envelope.
Addressed to Sebastian.
Inside was a single photograph.
Claudia.
Sophie.
Noah.
Emilia.
Taken through the kitchen window.
On the back:
YOU LEARNED TO CHOOSE FAMILY.
LET’S SEE WHAT IT COSTS YOU.
Sebastian stared at the photograph.
Then did something the old Sebastian never would have done.
He handed it to Claudia.
Immediately.
No hiding.
No protection through secrecy.
No deciding for her.
She read it.
Then looked at him.
“What do we do?”
May you like
Sebastian answered:
“We decide together.”
